If six rings makes Michael Jordan automatically better than LeBron James (and it sort of does), where does Tim Duncan rank? Duncan (19th) has fewer points than Dirk Nowitzki (10th all-time) and Kevin Garnett (15th) and trails Garnett (10th) in rebounds (11th). But he could win his fifth NBA title as early as tonight.

Duncan has never controlled a game as completely as Jordan or LeBron James, or even Hakeem Olajuwon or Magic Johnson, but he sure does win. Even at age 38. I’ve always liked Garnett and Nowitzki better, but Duncan is the one with the better argument to join Jordan, James, Wilt Chamberlain and Magic Johnson on the mythical all-time NBA team.

Sox need power

The White Sox have done a fine job of rebuilding on the fly, trading excess pitching (Hector Santiago, Jake Peavy and two closers) for young talent and signing Cuban star Jose Abreu while otherwise cutting salary. A nitpicker could point out the Sox let go of AL batting leader Alex Rios and Cy Young contender Mark Buehrle, but every team makes mistakes.

The key is the Sox are down to 19th in baseball in payroll and will drop to 26th with Adam Dunn coming off the books next year. If the Sox make more midseason or offseason deals this year, they should target power hitting; Abreu and Dunn have almost half (30) of their 68 homers.

Cubs go cheap

The Cubs are down to 28th in baseball in payroll at $73 million. Tell me again why they couldn’t bid higher for international players such as Jose Abreu, Masahiro Tanaka Yu Darvish and Yasiel Puig. If the Cubs’ payroll isn’t low enough, now they are talking about trading their two best pitchers. It makes sense to shop Jeff Samardzija (2-6, 2.77 ERA, 82 strikeouts) and Jason Hammel (6-4, 2.81, 76 strikeouts) because the Cubs have the third-worst record in baseball and don’t figure to contend soon. It all depends on what they’d get back; I’d just feel a lot better if it were Billy Beane doing the dealing.

Still, trading pitching isn’t nearly as risky as it used to be. As a friend pointed out recently, hitting has become the new pitching with good hitters now more scarce than reliable pitchers. The Cubs, with no regular hitting above .279, prove that.